I order xerics from High Country Gardens, Agaves and interesting plants from Plant Delights. I have a good source of interesting shrubs in Austin so I stick with the stores and plant swaps for Shrubs and trees.

I've done very well using eBay.

One of the keys to success, regardless of vendor, is to order before the weather turns hot. Very few plants do well in boxes and trucks this time of year. I try to order everything between October and March/April.

Carol in Jacksonville

Thanks, all! Very helpful.

I'm making a list with these suggestions. And I never thought about eBay, interesting!

Good advice, re: not ordering during summer. I'll wait. :)

Here here on the ordering at appropriate times! Some of the major good plant sites will not ship during the summer and you can order and pay and you will get them when the summer breaks.

Have also been very happy with the two Mara already mentioned. Can also check for (or make) comments about particular suppliers on the GW Rate & Review Vendors forum.

Almost Eden in LA and Mail-Order Natives in FL are two others that have delivered nice plants from interesting inventories. Dogwooderitternet in AR sells a variety of good quality starter-size plants through their ebay store; though do have to hunt harder for their natives as they've added more exotics over the years.

Shipping really hurts cost for larger size plants, so shrubs and trees we could only obtain by mail have easily been 3 or 4 years behind sizes we'd have bought if available at a local nursery. Good suppliers will know when/how they can reliably ship to your address; slower (lower cost) options might be available for larger items in the cooler months, but most of the small stuff now does fine year-round with 2 or 3 day delivery.

Edit: Have had 3 plant orders misrouted or lost over the years and the suppliers have made good on all but 1. That was for a gift tree someone sent us from an Amazon partner that would never disclose their physical address. Unfortunately you can no longer submit a USPS insurance claim without the sender's address and the replacement they claimed to have sent never showed up at the address we confirmed. So, would be very cautious buying online from anyone not established enough to either disclose physical contact info or work through an enforcing intermediary like ebay.

I have heard people really recommend Santa Rosa Gardens. They are great for ornamental grasses. They have great summer sales about now.

I've been happy with Accents for Home and Garden (Pepper's Greenhouse), Almost Eden and Bluestone Perennials. For daylilies I've ordered from and like Delano Daylilies, Maryott's Gardens, Singing Oaks and Wynn's.

Same places as bostedo, plus plant delights and Oakes Daylilies. . But not buying much anymore b/c no room!

really good luck with amazon and ebay (note your weather- they'll ship no matter what). I've also been really sucessful with arborday, but they won't have tons of variety.

I've most ordered small trees (think 1ft, $10 bucks), bushes, bulbs, and the like. Nothing large.